Opera fans will flock to the Theatre Royal next week but they’re not the only people Opera North are concerned about.

If you have never experienced opera, then it’s you they’re after. You the unititiated or, as they might see it, the deprived.

Peter Auty, one of the current singers with the company, says of opera that “it affects the guts”. That’s in a good way.

He goes on to say: “If you get it right, there’s a visceral reaction that you can’t get anywhere else in any other way.”

Well, that sounds pretty good. I’d imagine a lot of people would fancy a bit of that.

Many, many times opera has been labelled elitist and the preserve of the rich. It has been dismissed as over-long and never over until the fat lady sings.

But Leeds-based Opera North are more than keen to banish the negatives and highlight the positives.

That’s one reason they invited me and other journalists to their home, Leeds Grand Theatre, to meet some of the people involved in their Little Greats season.

This is the season of short operas served up to us as a kind of smorgasbord.

If Wagner, with his mighty Ring Cycle (whole afternoons and evenings were given over to that when Opera North brought its production to Sage Gateshead), saddled opera with its reputation for long performances, these are examples of the very opposite.

Charles Edwards, who directed one of the little greats, Pagliacci, billed as “a shot of pure operatic adrenaline”, said: “This is probably the least elitist opera company on the planet.”

A passionate advocate of opera, and decidedly down to earth, he explained: “I think there’s a bit of an artistic mission which is to try to break down the boundaries between what us mad folk do in this building – and in an opera company generally – and everyone in the audience.

“We’re artists and entertainers but we’re also just human beings.”

Charles, who also designed all the operas in the Little Greats season, went on to talk about the Opera North Chorus, a full-time, professional ensemble whose members appear in all six of the operas - and sing all of the roles in Trial by Jury.

“They’re getting more and more recognition,” he said. “They’re just extraordinary and they get some really good opportunities in this season to get really decent parts.”

Richard Burkhard as Tonio, Peter Auty as Canio, Elin Pritchard as Nedda and members of the Chorus of Opera North in Pagliacci (Image: Tristram Kenton, Opera North)

A few years ago Opera North enjoyed great success with a similar season called Eight Little Greats.

There are a lot of these short operas to choose from, apparently, so those were excluded this time.

“The guiding principle behind the choice was we wanted to show people the breadth and scope of what opera is about,” said Charles.

“If there is a spectrum with Gilbert and Sullivan at one end of it, some people will say, ‘That’s not really opera’. But it’s absolutely a matter of opinion and we say opera is a very broad church and Trial by Jury is very English and exceptionally funny and will be done well.

“Then you go to the other end of the spectrum to what is strange and hallucinogenic and that’s Janácek (Osud, meaning Destiny).

“Then you have Trouble in Tahiti. It’s really an opera but written by a composer (Leonard Bernstein) famous for writing musicals.

“This company does a lot of musicals. Bernstein owes a lot to Puccini and, arguably, West Side Story (which Bernstein composed) is not a musical but an opera.”

Charles took us on a tour of the set, devised to be adaptable enough to serve all the Little Greats bar Trial by Jury.

We met Karolina Sofulak, the cheerful Polish director of Cavalleria Rusticana, a “red-blooded tale of jealousy and revenge”, who agreed to pose in a chair on set.

And we stood on the stage, looking out into the vast auditorium and across the orchestra pit which, regardless of what Opera North are doing to build bridges, is a physical gulf between performers and audience.

Opera singers, despite what you might imagine from the Go Compare man, are pretty down-to-earth off stage – and not a fat lady to be seen.

Giselle Allen, a great favourite at Opera North, returns to sing the part of Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana and Míla in Osud.

Even opera buffs might be unfamiliar with the latter.

“It’s one of his early pieces but you can see the motifs which return in his later operas,” said Giselle.

“It’s a very dark, emotional journey involving difficult relationships – a composer who’s quite charismatic but very difficult at the same time, and my character who’s pregnant with his child. He has writer’s block and is struggling.

“Wonderful music and typical Janácek – jealousies, egos, very intense. I love that. It’s been a really fascinating journey. There are so many ways you can explore all the different things. Sometimes you come home and think... gin and tonic!”

Annabel Arden, director of Osud (and the Ravel opera L’Enfant et les sortilèges, or The Child and the Magic Spells), said: “It’s very difficult writing because it’s very multi-layered.

Clockwise from left: Quirijn de Lang as Grandfather Clock, John Graham-Hall as Tea Pot, Katie Bray as Louis XV Chair, John Savournin as the Armchair, Ann Taylor as the Mother, Wallis Giunta as the Child and Fflur Wyn as Fire in L'Enfant et Les Sortileges (Image: Tristram Kenton for Opera North)

“When I started looking at the piece I thought: no-one’s doing this because it’s really impossible.

“But I actually think this is one of his best pieces, although it involved a very convoluted writing process and was never finished in his lifetime. He was constantly re-writing it.

“He started it just after his daughter’s death. It’s like an intense laboratory of his later work and in some ways much more adventurous than others.

“The orchestration is wild. It’s one of those scores where there’s no definitive edition because he kept revising.”

Annabel, despite the moments driving people to gin, said: “I hope we can convey the sense of incredibly creative excitement this has caused for all of us.

“I live in London but I’ve never known a company like Opera North. Really it’s the national opera theatre. Covent Garden isn’t doing anything like this.

“This is a very daring season but I think it’s terrific to try to interest people in something they don’t know.”

Claire Pascoe as Counsel for the Plaintiff, with members of the Chorus of Opera North in Trial By Jury (Image: Robert Workman, Opera North)

Later, sitting in on a rehearsal for Osud involving John Graham-Hall, who plays the composer, Zivny, we got a sense of the intensity and difficulty of the opera which has only been performed five times since its premiere in 1958, 30 years after Janácek’s death.

“It’s a bit like being in rep for us, doing two different operas, because we’re terribly indulged,” John had told us.

“In Europe they give you two days off between performances. You get massages and time to protect your precious instrument (the voice).”

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In Little Greats she is singing the part of a nine-year-old boy in L’enfant et les sortilèges and, in Trouble in Tahiti, Dinah, the unhappily married mother of a young son.

“I have a brother who is nine years younger than me,” she said. “That helped.

“We have wonderful choreography in L’enfant by Theo Clinkard.”

I watched a rehearsal for Trouble in Tahiti in which Quirijn de Lang is the husband, Sam. It’s opera but not as many people would know it, a slice of domestic tension in American suburbia, sung (beautifully sung) in English.

Claire Pascoe as Counsel for The Plaintiff and Nicholas Watts as The Defendant, with members of the Chorus of Opera North in Trial By Jury (Image: Robert Workman, Opera North)

In the evening I saw Cavalleria Rusticana (car on set; Giselle Allen in sensational form) and Trial By Jury (sparkling, hilarious) while sitting next to a canny Yorkshireman, an Opera North regular of longstanding.

“Critic, are you?” he said as I took my seat; then, with a glance upwards, added: “Ceiling’s held up with piano wire.”

And with that mildly unsettling thought in my head, the safety curtain (with a group photo of the huge Opea North company) rose and the orchestra struck up.

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See Pagliacci (Leoncavallo) and Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni) on Wednesday, November 8 and Saturday, November 11 (7.15pm); L’enfant et les sortilèges (Ravel) and Osud (Janácek) on Thursday, November 9 (7.15pm); Trouble in Tahiti (Bernstein) and Trial by Jury (Arthur Sullivan) on Friday, November 10 (7.15pm); and L’enfant et les sortilèges again on the Saturday (2.15pm).

Tickets for the Litte Greats at the Theatre Royal start at £12.50 for an adult (£10 for the Saturday matinee and £5 for a child). Buy via www.theatreroyal.co.uk or tel. 0844 8112121.